Summer of Stamping Week 4 release is available now in the shop! Check out our Instagram Hop, beginning HERE, for tons more inspo and opportunities to win prizes! Leave some comment love at each stop along the way to throw your name into the giveaways hat!

Below, I’m highlighting Everything’s Beachy and the new hot foil stamp “Good Vibes Only” in my projects today!

As in pretty much all my card-making of late, I’ve been watercoloring everything—if I have to color, that’s my pick. This layout isn’t anything particularly special, but it’s one of my favorites—I split that top panel where I wanted the sea and the sand to meet using one of the Landscapes Dies , and watercolored just the edges of each separately; they were popped up with a slight gap between them and I embellished with some of those clear droplets I love so much! I really dig having the sunbrella hanging off the edge there, too. Adds interest!

I used the same Landscapes Dies to create the division—but this time I went on the angle, and very lightly ink blended the beach with a hint of Shea Butter and Sand Castle. The water’s edge was gently blended with All That Jazz and then I went over part of that with Lime Rickey to create another color.

I love having the pop of colored surfboards with the surfer dude there at one end of a series of uncolored boards; I must confess it actually turned out even better IRL than what I was picturing in my head (or chicken scratch sketches, LOL!).

And this last one? I’m crazy CRAZY happy about the retro style of this brand new hot foil stamp! I just made a monochromatic background by stamping the Swirl Background in Limoncello over Sour Lemon card stock (I did have to stamp several times to get the intensity of ink color I wanted—easy with a MISTI). Man, oh man, I guess I could have taken it further, but for me just the simple gold foiling (Gemini Foil Press) right over the top of that was absolute PERFECTION!!!

I’ll be sharing more of the samples I made for the release page here on my blog this week—thanks for stopping by today and don’t forget to cruise the Instagram Hop! May the odds be ever in your favour! (grin)

If you’d like more info on products that coordinate well with the Everything’s Beachy and the Good Vibes Hot Foil Stamp, please visit the full release page HERE.

Disclosure: Yup, those are affiliate links to the products used in my projects and I make a small commission when you purchase via those links, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for buying all the things!

I was having a hellacious time trying to shoot these against a white backdrop (bright sunny days are an exposure nightmare for me when I need to photograph something. Of course, so are dreary rainy days, too. Whenever I have to shoot something, I hope it will be a cloudy day; no such luck since last Friday. LOL!).

After a lot of frustration, I tossed aside all the white backdrops I had on hand and grabbed this lovely, minimalist woodgrain tray I found at Nitori while I was in Japan. I love woodgrain, and when I spied these trays that came in different wood finishes and a ton of different sizes, I had to bring at least two home with me. I mean, c’mon—something utilitarian that can also do double duty as a photography backdrop? No brainer. •fist pump• And I love the contrast they provide to my typical mostly-white cards!

So. How ‘bout those limes? I love having a citrusy rainbow of color behind them and used that fun background from Wonky Backdrops—it’s so good for so many things!

I taped together two Hero Arts Infinity Circle dies to make a die cut ring to cluster my lemons, etc. into. I was having trouble clustering all the elements how I wanted them and corralling them like this led me to a pleasing arrangement. Before I mounted them, I scored a trio of lines across my card front just for a little added texture and interest—gave it just enough without going over the top or cluttering things up.

When life hands ya’ lemons, just remember . . . •chortle•

I cut the sentiment apart before popping it up—Hey, Mikey! I likey!

It’s hard to tell in the first photo, but I put a layer of Clear Pico Embellisher by Tsukineko/Imagine Crafts over the top of the lemons to make ‘em all juicy and what not. Hopefully, this angle shows it off much better. You could use Glossy Accents or NUVO Clear Drops, of course, if that’s what you have on hand.

All of today’s designs were stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento and colored in with Copics (specific colors I used are listed down below in the supplies).

Are you a fan of citrus? I love it. And margaritas. Shaken, not frozen. •chinkle•

Alrighty, then! That’s all I got today. Have a gooder!

SUPPLIES (affiliate links used wherever possible):

EBE SUMMER OF STAMPING WEEK 4 RELEASE NOW LIVE

3 CARDS USING SQUEEZE THE DAY